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Monday, August 8, 2011

Review: Sigma Dry and Shape System

Today's review is the Sigma Dry and Shape System. This is one of their newest products, it's meant as an aid in helping to dry your makeup brushes quicker and shape it while it does. When it comes to me, I am not too fussy when I wash my brushes, I use anti-bacterial hand soap, the same stuff that I use when I wash my hands in the bathroom (one from Bath and Body Works). I don't mind how long it takes because I normally leave them dry overnight. I have so many brushes that if some are dirty, it's not a big deal, I just grab another one.

What I normally do is wash them in soap, rinse them out with tap water, then tap and soak all the excess water out with a bath towel or paper towel. Then I leave them on the side of the sink to dry. Sometimes very dense brushes like the Flat Top F80 are still a bit damp the next day, but it doesn't bother me to use it since I only use those with liquid foundation. I was curious if the Dry and Shape would make much of a difference in my routine, and I was skeptical if it would. I have read people ask how you clean the brush roll itself, since it can become unsanitary with the dirty water spilling out. The brush roll is made of synthetic material, so it's easy to wipe clean. If your brushes are really dirty you can wipe them down first on something, ensuring all the water or cleanser is out of it, then place it in the Dry and Shape. None of my brushes leak because I make sure I wipe them dry first.

The Sigma Dry and Shape retails for $29 on the Sigma Makeup website. It looks like a brush roll but with compartments (bands) on the top and bottom to hold your brushes in place. It comes with big and small bands, so that you can put your large face brushes and your smaller eyeshadow brushes inside. It's a no brainer that face brushes take longer to dry, they are larger and have more bristles, and I think Sigma designed this system with that in mind, as there are more place holders for larger brushes. My initial thought was, how will putting my brushes in this help them dry any quicker than just letting them sit on the sink? Well when you condense the bristles together, they dry faster apparently, similar to placing them in a brushguard.

When I received this product in the mail, it came in a box and with a pamphlet like all Sigma products explaining how to use it. The instructions explain how "The Dry and Shape System promises to completely dry and shape your most dense brushes within 4 to 6 hours guaranteed. The Dry’n Shape provides the necessary pressure to bristles to quickly and efficiently remove water from every fibre. The fabric used to shape the bristles was specially engineered to accelerate water evaporation, resulting in a faster drying time for your brushes."

Here is the Dry and Shape filled with brushes inside it, they are from various brands, I have some Sigma, ELF, MAC and Quo brushes in there. There are 12 spots, so if you happen to have the Complete Sigma Brush Set you can fit all your brushes in this. I did find however that even the spots for the large brushes were a tad tight, I found the F20 Large Power Brush, which is the large paddle brush, difficult to get into the band. And they say you can fit a kabuki brush in there too, although that can take some effort in my opinion.

There are only 4 spots for smaller brushes and I found brushes like the smaller eyebrushes and blending brush fit quite loosely in the bands. I would think they would of made the bands to fit certain brushes more easily, that being the Sigma brushes, but they don't fit all that great in this, there are varying levels of loose and snug pieces. I think this is something they could work on. You could put more than one eyeshadow brush in each band, but I think that would defeat the purpose of shaping them.

What is cool is you can flip the system upside down, so that any leftover water can drain out of the brushes instead of into the ferrules. And you can snap the ends of the brush holder together and stand it up. A major reason why brushes come apart and the ferrule separate is because liquid gets caught in the ferrule and wears away the glue that holds the piece together.

I tested the system to see if the brushes actually did dry in 4 to 6 hours, and they did, like I said, I am not too picky with how long the process of drying brushes takes. What I did find that I liked about the Dry and Shape was how it shaped the brushes, since they are tightly condensed into the band. The bristles cannot splay out and get full, so once they're dry you are left with a nice shaped brush, like they should look and they perform better.

Would I recommend this product? The Dry and Shape is overall a good product, I was impressed with how it shaped my brushes, although I wish some of my eyeshadow brushes fit more tightly than they did.